Ivan Seidenberg

Ivan Seidenberg is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. He was paid $18.2 million in 2010.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
Verizon has been a longtime member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Former General Counsel, Jerry Watson, is the Chairman Emeritus on ALEC's Corporate ("Private Enterprise") Board.

ALEC's current Executive Director, Ronald Scheberle, was formerly Vice President of Governmental Affairs at Verizon Communications Inc, (previously GTE/Verizon) and held that position with Verizon and predecessor companies for 30 years.

Background
Seidenberg was Co-CEO in 2000 at Verizon's start, then became the sole CEO in 2002 and as Chairman since 2004. He "was instrumental in forming Verizon through a number of mergers and acquisitions, including Bell Atlantic and NYNEX (1997), GTE Corporation (2000) and MCI, Inc. (2006). He also helped create what is now Verizon Wireless in 1999 by bringing together the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, GTE Wireless and the U.S. properties of Vodafone AirTouch." He has also served as a director of Honeywell International Inc. and Wyeth.